Recap: Dec. 1, 2007

WEATHER: By our standards it was cold! Sunny and 57, but very windy with gusts reported up to 26 mph. A great day for a running game, except we can only run once per possession (what idiot thought of that rule? Oh, it was me).

WELCOME: No first timers, but a welcome back to Doug and Kevin, who last played a year ago.

SCHEDULE: We are at Penmar Dec. 8 and Playa Dec. 15. We will play Dec. 22 site TBA. We are off Dec. 29 (holidays), Jan. 5-12 (NFL playoffs) and Jan. 19 (a lot of our guys our in a basketball tournament).

GAME: White led from the start and moved up 28-12. Then Dark rallied late to cut it to 28-25, forcing White to score on final drive. White was successful and pulled it out 34-25.

EVERYONE KNOWS IT’S WINDY: The wind really played havoc with the passing game, causing balls to flutter, die and sail. There were eight intereceptions, two each by Toby and TO the new Brent, not be confused with our old Brent, the photog). Also ones by Drew, Kevin, Brent and Drew (#23).

On one play I was certain I had overthrown Patrick only to see the ball die in midair and be picked by Drew. On another, I thought I had overthrown Mat but the ball wound up hitting him perfectly in stride for a score. A fun day to play DB.

TD MAKERS: Mat and TO each had two scores. Mat ran a nice corner route for his first score, then really accelerated on a deep pass for his second. TO totally faked out the DB on snagging a bomb from Drew, and was heads up on what was our …

… FLUKY PLAY OF THE DAY: Toby was free safety and looked in possession to grab a pick. Then the wind took over, sailing the ball farther than Toby thought. He got his hands on it, then it ricocheted out into the waiting hands of TO for the score.

WHICH NICKNAME IS MORE ACCURATE?: On one play, JP made a great flag grab on TO, holding him to no gain. “Great grab, wussy!” I thought I head one of White defenders say. “Wussy? He said Whiskey!” JP said. Apparently, our Southern players were talking alcohol (shocker) and JP said he preferred whiskey. But I prefer wussy.

NOW WE KNOW I: In case you were wondering the relationship between Kevin and Doug, it was answered on this play. Kevin was toasted on a deep pass for a score and Doug, on the other team, started teasing him. “I know who’s not getting any tonight,” Kevin said.

NOW WE KNOW II: Standing on sidelines, one learns some trivia. Chris was born Christmas Day, as was Patrick’s brother, and Mat is going to Argentina for two weeks of fun.

TRUE TO THEIR SCHOOLS: We had players from Cal (Bryan and Andrew), Ohio State (Angel and Chris, the ref), Penn State (me) and Texas (Toby).

CLUTCH DRIVE: White put together the key drive that salted the game away, abandoning the deep pass because of the wind. Hinders had tow first down catches, including a nifty slant pattern for 12 yards. Toby made a big catch on third down, Mike and Drew caught some and I ran it in for the clinching score from about 6 yards out.

TACKLE OF THE DAY: Drew threw a long pick to Toby, who started weaving and darting his way back. You could tell that Drew was not going to let him score and he ensured it by literally grabbing Toby’s shirt and hanging on until he got his flag.

COOLEST PLAY: The Dark one-point conversion option. Shaun took the snap, faked it in the belly of TO, then optioned it out to Drew. The defender was still looking at Shaun as Drew easily ran by him in the end zone.

MR CLUTCH: Mike was terrific all day – he had two sacks and numerous pressures as a rusher and made several big catches, and caught a shovel pass for a TD.

BONEHEAD PLAY: Drew (#23) wore a white shirt under his MJ jersey. On one play I looked saw white and thought, “Gee, my guy’s wide open.” I promptly threw him the ball, which is gratefully returned 20 yards. I need to take a color test.

BIG PLAYS: Angel made a great catch on a deep pass from Drew for a TD. … JP showed some great moves (I know, it is amazing) on a third down catch that he ran in for a score. He caught the pass, then juked out the defender (who was probably more shocked than anything), cut back to his right and scored. … Patrick had several big catches, consistently getting a lot of YACs.